One of the awesome things about Twitter is that it’s a great link-sharing tool. Kevin, from Strategic Public Relations, found this awesome tidbit and immediately shared it on Twitter. Now I’m bringing it to you.

In Paris, you can now sample wine as you might sample perfume. In fact, the packaging is eerily similar. The trend of letting a consumer try-before-they-buy is called Tryvertising (the Apple Store is a giant example of this), and why shouldn’t it be applied to wine?

In spirit, it’s no different than attending a free tasting in a wine shop. I’ve also read of other wine shops where you can purchase samples from fancy machines, which is a great way to try that wine you could never afford to purchase. These tube-shaped bottles, because they factor in the look and feel of packaging, take the concept to a whole new level.

WineSide offers both sweet and classic wines in patented, flat-base
glass tubes with screw tops carefully engineered to protect the wines’
flavour. The sweet wines—which include Sauternes and Muscat, for
example—are available in 6cl tubes, while the Pomerol, Chateau Neuf du
Pape and other classic wines can be purchased in 6cl or 10cl sizes.
WineSide’s collection represents a range of appellations and producers;
tubes are available individually or by the box, which can be chosen to
provide an introduction to a variety, year or region. Kicking off
retail sales, the products are available exclusively at Colette in Paris this month.

I rather like this as something I could take home with me, try it when I want, and return later to purchase a bottle. If I were a large conglomerate, such as Constellation Group, I’d jump on this to market many of my wines, across wineries, at one time.

Years ago, I frequented The Swing Lounge on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. It was a classy place, with a central bar, a dance floor, rounded booths, and pool tables. But bars come and go, and The Swing Lounge closed. Since then, I haven’t been able to find a bar that has that same level of sophistication. Since then, styles have changed a bit and the cool retro is now ‘60s martinis instead of ‘40s swing. And my new Swing Lounge is called Twist, owned by The Jean-Robert Restaurant Group, and located on 4th Street, next door to Pigall’s.

Twist definitely pulls some of its ambiance from Shag’s 60’s. But there’s also a cosmopolitan feel to the place – perhaps brought from the gorgeous chandeliers of flowers, imported from Paris and hanging near both the front and back of the club. I didn’t get his name, but I was impressed with the dj. He mashed up familiar tunes with some House, creating something unfamiliar but approachable. It was a truly eclectic mix.

We arrived a little before midnight on a Saturday night. While it was busy, you could still move through the place without too much issue. As it got a little later, the crowd thinned and Twist was filled with beautiful people in beautiful clothes. My friend asked me, “Do they even let ugly people in here?” I realized that the patrons spanned all races and ages, placing me squarely in the middle of the age range. As the clocked ticked down the hours until closing, we watched the club progress from a bit of a meat market to a much more relaxed atmosphere.

To be quite honest, manually typing out (even with a lot of cutting and pasting) the wine events each week was killing me. I just didn’t have the time. So I started looking for an alternative. After a lot of overcomplicated solutions, I came back to Ol’ Reliable: Google Calendar.

I embedded the calendar, in agenda format, on this page on the site. You can ALWAYS reach this page! Yay! With this calendar, not only can you view the next week, but as far as I’ve posted events (currently through June). Not only that, they are still printable. You can choose to print the One-Time Events or the Recurring Events, with a specified date range.

So I direct you HERE to view the calendar listing for the week. (You can always view this calendar by clicking the Calendar link in the left column.)

That said, I’ll still pull out a few *special* events each week that I think are neat or for a good cause. From now on, you can check the calendar page whenever you want (yay!) and I’ll feature a few events each week. Let’s get started!This week’s image is from Cincy Images.

April 12WCET Action Auction Wine Night!Channel 48/PBS on your TVYou can get some great deals on wine and help a good cause! You can also watch Kevin & I as auctioneers, if you’re really bored. Read more here.

Cincinnati Wine (& Beer & Spirits) Events are now listed in a Google Calendar, embedded here. Trust me when I tell you there are so many, it’s better to use the Agenda format seen on this page. To view more and more events, use the scrollbar on the right side of the agenda. Use the Arrow next to the drop-down menu to print either One-Time Events or Recurring Events.

Each week, we’ll call out a few featured events in a blog post, but all the recurring events are right here. (For information on Dayton, you can
refer to Mark’s blog at Uncorked.) If you know of tastings or events that we missed in the Cincinnati area, or if we have incorrect information, please email us (michelle at wine-girl dot net) and we’ll add it to the list.

You may note that the tastings in KY are mostly free, and the
tastings in Ohio charge at least .25. It’s illegal for a retailer to
give alcohol away in Ohio, so they charge you, but many times it’s a
nominal fee.

It must be charity season. I got this in my email today and thought I’d share:

Win a Wine Cellar IX, is a raffle to benefit programs such as Camp Wekandu, a summer residential camp for children and teens with juvenile arthritis and related illnesses. Prizes consist of three fabulous packages of wine and consolation prizes, for a total of twenty-three lucky winners. Tickets are $40 each or three for $100. The lucky winners will be drawn on May 15, 2008. To print an order form or find out details on prizes and contest rules, please visit our web page at www.winawinecellar.org or call 513-636-7689.

I checked the web site. It does not mean someone will come to your house and build a wine cellar for you. (That was my first thought.) It does mean you can win enough wine that you’ll need a wine cellar built for you!